SMS

It seems emergency text messages are the new black when it comes to public safety. New York’s MTA, the organization that runs—really well I might add—the subways and busses will hire a company to develop a mass text messaging system. The MTA would then use this system to inform riders about pertinent service changes (“The 7 train isn’t running today. Good luck… Read More

Texting while driving is a sure fire way to get a ticket or get in an accident. Just being back in California this last week makes me wonder why and how I ever used my phone while driving. It’s ridiculously stupid and unsafe, but I still do it. Heh. But things may change thanks to some fancy speech solutions from Nuance. Oh, yeah, DWT means driving while texting. Watch the video and see… Read More

Apparently a couple of days ago at CTIA, former president Bill Clinton sent his first text message to his wife Hillary. ZDNet’s Russell Shaw says, "Another example of how most politicians are clueless about tech. Bill Clinton’s first tech message? This is October 2007?"
Maybe, but the idea of a politician pecking away at a cell phone is kind of a silly visual to me. Read More

TEXTING + DRIVING = DEAD MOOSE
Driving while talking on your cellphone may have risks involved, but it’s still possible to do it safely via one way or another. However, when it comes to texting and driving, that’s just a bad mix no matter how you look at it. My roommate texts and drives all the time, even when he’s doing 80MPH down the BQE. It kind of freaks me out and I… Read More

Research firm Gartner is predicting that SMS will become obsolete or at the very least become insignificant by 2010. Duh. The report may only apply in Australia, but it isn’t very hard to see the correlation here in the U.S.
Mobile e-mail is becoming more prevalent every day with Joe Shmoe picking up a BlackBerry or some other smartphone with e-mail capabilities. You may be led to… Read More

Our paranoid UK readers who rock 128-bit encryption on every file will be happy to know that Vodafone UK will be bringing encryption to text messages. The company recently announced plans to bring an encrypted SMS service to customers. Partnering with Broca, Vodafone will use Broca’s SAMS technology to ensure that all messages are encrypted. No word yet on what kind of encryption will… Read More

While NJ may have been one of the first states to ban driving and talking on a cellphone, Washington is smart enough to realize that plenty of people still text while they drive. Now in an effort to curb accidents and careless driving, Washington has made it illegal to operate a cellphone while driving. However, it’s a secondary offense, meaning the po’ can only give you a ticket… Read More

Do you use Skype? Do you SMS people with Skype? No? Didn’t think so. Well, now there’s a bit more reason to give it a go. From May 2 to May 8 — which is the week of Saint Erasmus, the martyred patron saint of digital communications popular in Asia and Europe but not so popular in the United States — SMSes through Skype will be 50% off. What does that translate into… Read More

Before you get all excited about paying your taxes with your cellphone so you can get back to eating Cheese Doodles and watching World Series Poker, note that this is only happening in the Philippines currently. The country’s Internal Revenue Bureau has struck a deal with major telecom and banking groups that will allow personal income taxes to be paid via SMS. Unfortunately, this new… Read More

Latest Crunch Report

Qantas, the official airline of Australia, has announced they will begin a three month public trial on one of Boeing 767s in the fleet for domestic flights. Emirates and Ryanair have also announced intentions to have such trials. Unfortunately, the US won’t be experiencing such trials anytime soon. I, for one, am happy about that. I hate people who talk very LOUD on the bus, and… Read More

Are you down and out? Are you on the street? Does evening fall so hard that you’d like Paul Simon to comfort you? Fear not, brave soul. Moka has some content for you. Moka is an odd SMS service that condenses and sends the key thoughts from many popular self-help books (Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal Your Life,” Wayne Dyers “Inspiration,” God’s… Read More

Those who enjoy the simpler things in life will gladly welcome the Nokia 5070. This candybar-style phone has no radical design and is chock full of basic features! You’ll get the ability to SMS and MMS, stunning audio messaging, a built-in camera with a terrible resolution, FM radio to listen to NPR on, a stereo headset, and the choice between a red or blue paint job. Doesn’t get… Read More

Over the past few months, rumors of a “Sidekick 2.5″ were flying about. I took notice and after a few weeks, checked with some of my sources to confirm. Sure enough, a “Sidekick 2.5″ was in the works as a trimmed-down alternative to the Sidekick 3. Today I was leaked a picture of the device, which you see above in a color pattern known as “ugly”. Though… Read More

We’re not sure if you noticed or not, but recently it seems every carrier is raising SMS prices. Now T-Mobile has joined its rivals by increasing rates for SMS, yet decreasing MMS prices. And when a provider changes it’s service, you know what that means kids…
That’s right! It means you can cut and run with T-Mobile without forking over a $200 cancellation fee. Boy… Read More

True phone phreaks freaks will appreciate this GSM doorbell system from Dutch manufacturer Waleli. Once you install the doorbell system, you can let friends and family in remotely by entering a password via SMS when the doorbell is rung. The pizza guy? He’s chill. My mother? Come on in. Angry mob of loyal CDMA supporters or Jehovah’s Witnesses? Buzz off.
As awesome as this system… Read More

If you thought your high school girlfriend sent a lot of SMSs, wait ’till you see what China is predicting. The Xinhua news agency said Monday that it expects over 14 billion text messages to be sent during the Lunar New Year. Keep in mind, this is just during one week! China Unicom and China Mobile have both adjusted their networks to compensate for the increase in traffic.
Plus, with… Read More

In the spirit of AllCallsForFree or whatever that latest Iowa free international number is, TXTDrop is offering free SMS calls. No catch, just a little added tag at the end of the message advertising the service. There’s even an OS X widget and the mandatory Web 2.0 logo.
Give it a go — while its still free.
Web Page Read More

to note that SpinVox is now launching within our borders.
He’s been using the service since December and seems to be mighty pleased with it. Whenever you receive a voicemail, SpinVox converts the message to text and sends it to your phone via SMS. That way you can get the message in a timelly, but unobtrusive, fashion.
Although it is currently negotiating carriers, you can test the… Read More

MMS messages like this one were part of the massive amount of SMS messages that were sent by Croatians to bring in the new year. People from Croatia really helped celebrate 2007 with 32.5 million texts being sent to wish each other a good new year. From the AP:
From 07:00 pm (1800 GMT) on New Year’s eve until midnight on January 1, users of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and… Read More

Score one for our boys across the pond. Ever been at a dinner, party, or some event where you want to leave but need a way out that is subtle and plausible? The text message is the perfect opportunity to get “urgent news” that will let you ditch that ugly chick faster than the speed of light. Now a city council in the UK is offering a free service that allows you to receive an… Read More